


Matilda, who got caught up in a Mary Renault hero's backstory of ultimate manpain and was burned to death

by AJHall



Category: North Face - Mary Renault
Genre: Adultery, Bad Poetry, Child Death, F/M, No respect at all for the author's worldview, Poetry, Politics, Rhyming, Slut-Shaming, Source-appropriate gender attitudes, Victorian didactic verse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-21
Updated: 2016-03-21
Packaged: 2018-05-28 05:31:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6316555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AJHall/pseuds/AJHall
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Comment fic. Based on someone's description of a character's backstory in a novel I have not read (Spoilers for North Face) in an online discussion.</p><p>In honour of National Poetry Day</p>
            </blockquote>





	Matilda, who got caught up in a Mary Renault hero's backstory of ultimate manpain and was burned to death

Matilda's mum, ginormous slut,  
Her lipstick checked, a candle put  
Besides Matilda's wee cot's side,  
Then to her lover's arms she hied.  
Up at the school, Matilda's dad,  
'Neath arches old, with ivy clad,  
Thought fondly of his little girl.  
Her dimpled cheeks, her golden curl  
Her babbling lisp, her sturdy frame -  
Would he could bring to mind her name!

Still, details are a mother's part -  
Or would be, were not she a tart.

"My God, the time! I needs must run."  
"Darling, not yet, we've scarce begun."  
(Her urgent lover's clasping arms  
Stifl'd the shiftless mother's qualms.)

The fateful candle gutters low  
A strength'ning breeze the curtains blow  
A flickering spark and all's alight --  
God keep Matilda safe this night!

No angel hears her dying call  
Nor He who sees each sparrow fall  
But her mum hot from bed of whoring --  
SHE stumbles on the furnace roaring.

Too late by then to scream and holler  
Death has Matilda by the collar  
So sadly passes poor Matilda  
Leaving us to ask, "Who killed her?"

Her grieving dad knows whom to blame  
Her distraught mum feels just the same  
But we should spread our own net wider  
GREED is the true infanticider.

Lust may be scarlet red and gaudy  
Greed is grey and clad in shoddy.  
Don't blame it on Mum's recreation:  
Guess what would've saved Matilda's bacon?

**Attention paid when building schools  
To BASIC HEALTH AND SAFETY RULES.**

So teachers all, from Skye to Sounion  
How e'er you vote, just JOIN A UNION  
Matilda died from scrimp-and-saving  
Not from her mother's sexual craving.  
Housemasters should have decent housing  
Not live where open flames need dousing.

Whene'er you're asked to shame a slut  
Ensure the blame is rightly put.  
Speak loud the truth of poor Matilda.  
"No 'lectrics here" it was what killed her.


End file.
